Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Sex Trafficking and Clinic Responsibility: What Would You Do?

If you were an employee at a reproductive health care clinic and someone came in and asked you about obtaining abortions for women being sex trafficked, what would you do?

Here’s what I would do: Lie. Lie, lie, and then lie some more.

Why?

There’s one thing for certain: If you tell the person “No, we will not give these women healthcare” then you will never be able to find them. You will never be able to help them get out of being trafficked, help them get their lives back.

And if you tell this person “That’s against the law! I’m calling the cops!”- then you might just lose your life.

Everyone knows that in a bank robbery, you’re supposed to do whatever the bank robber tells you. The bank robber doesn’t care about the law or your life, (s)he just wants the money and to escape. Doing anything to prevent that puts you in danger.

The same thing applies with someone who trafficks people. This person abuses women for their bodies- (s)he’s not interested in your morals or the law.

The BEST way to ensure those trafficked girls are found? Lie. Tell the person that you can provide the girls with healthcare services, that you wont tell anyone, that its all perfectly legal. And then after the meeting, go tell your superiors and the law enforcement. When the person comes again with the women (s)he is trafficking, law enforcement can be there to arrest the person. The girls can be provided with healthcare (which they will need), counseling, a place to stay, etc. Dare I sound too forward- they can be rescued.

Of course, if the person coming in to ask about healthcare for sex trafficked women is really just a fake undercover anti-choicer, this type of situation may lead the employee and the clinic to look bad.

But personally, I’d rather look bad and rescue women from sex trafficking than look good and never have the chance to save them. Being a reproductive justice activist isn’t about looking good, it’s about helping other people.

I could not agree with you more. Beautifully written.Everyone is all in an uproar about Planned Parenthoods reaction to these "actors" but many people don't realize that these "stings" as Lila Rose (founder of LiveAction) calls them were NOT in anyway performed by a clean conscience.

Pshhh.....whatever. She was trying to help. Help herself to the "pimp's" payola to her personally for 'streamlining' his girls through the system....just like the millionaire late term abortionists want to help women.....nice try. Can you say "show me the money"?

If Ms. Woodruff handled the situation so expertly, why did Planned Parenthood fire her? Why did VP of Communications call her actions a “total breakdown in judgment” on national TV?

This isn’t a judgment call. The laws are quite clear on what clinic staff are REQUIRED to do. Report any suspicious activity – especially involving minors – IMMEDIATELY.

Here’s a perfectly reasonable scenario:

1) Criminal admits he is a criminal.2) Clinic worker finds ANY excuse to leave the room for just a second. “Let me go find that paperwork…”3) Clinic worker tells another employee, “Call 911 immediately. There’s a child sex trafficker in the other room!”4) Go back and act like everything’s fine. Try to stall criminal until the police can arrive.

Would that have been so hard? Instead, in all FIVE videos released, the clinic workers provide legal information that would be very valuable to these “sex workers” in their efforts to hide their activities from the law. On top of that, they did nothing to notify local law enforcement.

It makes my brain hurt wondering why abortionists cling to killing and the exploitation of women with such a death grip - to the point of providing every scenario possible to defend the actions of Woodruff, Gosnell, Tiller, et al..... and even more shameless to do it in the name of Jesus Christ.

Your entire article is about clinic workers' responsibility in exactly the same situation Amy Woodruff was in. If you weren't talking about her and the other staff in the (currently) 7 videos, who were you talking about?

2) As described in that article, clinic workers are required to report suspicious activity to local authorities immediately. This was not done in any situation. It would be very easy for Planned Parenthood to prove that any of them did, but they have not come forward with any such information.

3) "Planned Parenthood contacted the authorities" by writing a letter to Eric Holder (USAG) and asked for an FBI investigation ONE FULL WEEK after the first video was recorded. That is not immediate. That is not local authorities.

4) There was a video released this week of a New York clinic where two separate workers (one the clinic supervisor) were aiding the pimp. Yet Planned Parenthood never made any mention of this situation in their letter to Eric Holder or in any of their public communications, meaning they either didn't know about it (it wasn't even reported internally by staff) or they condone it enough to not report it/speak out about it.

"Seeing how Planned Parenthood provides healthcare services, there is nothing illegal or wrong about informing the public about the services they provide."

Maybe not, but that's not all the clinic workers did. Do you really think there is nothing wrong with informing an underage sex trafficker about what the laws are and how he can get around them? That's literally what happened in SEVEN clinics now over the course of 4 days.

"I do not appreciate your attempts to lie about PP."

Since you made the accusation, please point out one lie I have written.

I'm really interested: from your comments, it sounds like you haven't actually watched these videos in their entirety. Have you?

I was talking about me. I said "Here’s what I would do." Then I asked: What would you do?

1. You link actually says they're not trained as law enforcement officers:"But it is unreasonable, federation officials said, to expect those interviewing a new patient— and who are required by law to offer confidentiality — to take action on the spot.

“We are not asking the front-line health worker or receptionist to do a legal analysis of the situation, but rather to report it when there is any hint of a risk to the welfare of a minor,” Mr. Schear said."

I said: attempt to lie. It's clear you have been mislead about what appears in the videos; for instance, your comment about all 7 clinics telling people how to get around the laws is untrue.

I'll say again: Providing information about the services offered at the clinic is not illegal.

This post is a backhanded attempt to say maybe PP isn't a vile organization with one goal: perform as many abortions as possible in the attempt to get more federal funding. Since PP didn't contact the police in any of the filmed instances we can safely conclude their culture is one of ignoring the law and getting on with the job of killing babies.

I never said they were trained as law enforcement officials. You seem willfully negligent of details of my posts. You're over simplifying the issue. With your logic, they're either fully-trained "law enforcement officers" or they can do absolutely nothing about an illegal situation. Wrong.

As that article says (in the first paragraph), "Planned Parenthood said ... it would retrain thousands of staff members across the country on its rules for reporting possible dangers to minors, and would automatically fire anyone who violated them."

PP is going to "retrain" (as in, they've already been trained) their staff on its rules (its already existing rules) for reporting "possible dangers." Obviously, this situation was not just a possible danger. The pimp was explicit in the fact that he was running underage prostitution.

All PP staff have been told (or are supposed to be - by law) that they are required to report such situations to local authorities immediately; not tell their supervisors and have the national office write the FBI a letter 7 days later. There's a BIG difference.

So that whole "ignoring the law" bit? True.

"It's clear you have been mislead about what appears in the videos; for instance, your comment about all 7 clinics telling people how to get around the laws is untrue."

I'm now convinced that you haven't even watched these videos. I noticed you didn't answer my question before. Oversight? I think not.

Rhology, you obviously did not follow the link. LiveAction tampered with the sound on the recording. In one section of what is supposedly the same video, two different things are being said on the "full" version and the "edited" version. That's impossible without manipulation.

As for the weak complaint about edited videos: Watch the full versions, which Live Action has made easily available to anyone. It takes more patience to watch them, but all the same events happen.

Live Action has always submitted their videos to the authorities in every case over the past 4 years, and have never been accused or even suspected of tampering with evidence. Also, Planned Parenthood itself has never claimed that dialog presented in the videos is in any way inaccurate.

The only true statement Planned Parenthood has made that I agree with was in their 1964 ad when they said "An abortion kills the life of a BABY after it has begun." Note the use of the word "baby" not "fetus".

They also continued in their ad saying "Abortion is dangerous to your life and health. It may make you sterile so that when you want a child you cannot have it. Birth control merely postpones the beginning of life".

Why did Planned Parenthood start changing what they taught? It's because of $$$$ lot's of $$$$. They quickly realized how lucrative abortion is for them and they started singing a different tune.

Of course, the change in risk of abortion from 1964 and 2011 has nothing to do with the re-legalizing of the procedure, knowledge about the need for a sterile environment, advancement in medical knowledge, improvement of procedures...

oh shit I mentioned slaves. Now we will be compared to slave owners...

As usual, you are doing a phenomenal job pro-choice christian. Lila Rose is so full of shit and knows a pretty savvy editor (film editing is my area of expertise. Although any dumbo can see what was done with the footage...well...almost any dumbo)

I think this is a case of trying despretigiar an institution that brought the debate. Obviously in the case you describe can be counted as a crime to have to see what role it plays gestiona.el process.

About Me

I'm a Pro-choice Christian who wants to reduce the need for elective abortions through comprehensive sex education, reformed adoption and better support for pregnant women!
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